Marathon Pace

I'll admit that I'm still a little intimidated when I say that my goal marathon pace is 6 minute miles. I guess it's just kind of ingrained in my head that 6 min/miles is fast. I remember as recent as just over two years ago running a 5K with the goal of averaging a 6 minute pace. Now I want to run that same pace for for 23 additional miles. Yeah, it's a little intimidating, but it can be done. Actually the half-marathon that I ran a few weeks ago, predicts a 2:37:30 marathon which would be right at 6:00, so technically, I guess, I should be saying that it will be done, not it can be done. You know…confidence and all that jazz. Whatever, we'll know soon enough I guess.

The reason I bring all this up was that today I wanted to spend some good time at marathon pace. The goal was to do 11 miles total, with 8 miles at 6 minute pace and to finish feeling strong. I've done 8 miles at marathon pace before, but usually by the end of it, I'm pretty wiped out. I didn't want that to happen today. I headed out at a comfortable pace and I was feeling good. I actually was averaging a 5:48 pace for the first half, but that was most likely due to a good wind at my back for the first four miles. The real test came at the turnaround point, were I had to head back into the wind for four miles on somewhat tired legs. I hit the turnaroud in 23:15 and then really had to increase the effort with the wind in my face. I knew the pace was a little too fast in the beginning so the main goal now was just to keep each half-mile split under the magical 3:00 minute mark.

Actually the second half went suprisingly good. There were a few miles in there where I was in the upper 5:50's, but every mile was under a 6 minute pace and I did finish feeling strong. The second half of the run was definitely done at a higher effort than the first part of the run, but I think that had more to do with the wind than anything. In the few sections of the lakefront path where I was shielded from the wind, I was able to smooth everything out and my breathing became much less labored, which was encouraging. I did the second half of the run in 23:37 for an average of 5:54 per mile. Overall, the pace was 5:51 for the 8 miles, which was probably a little too fast for what I wanted to accomplish today, but with the wind, I think it was OK. Most importantly, I felt good at the end. There was no strain to keep the pace below 6. With fresh legs from the taper, hopefully, things will work on October 22nd.